Italian Studies – Film Review

While visiting New York City from her native London, writer Alina Reynolds (Academy Award®-nominee Vanessa Kirby) inexplicably loses her memory and suddenly becomes unmoored and adrift on the streets of Manhattan with no sense of time or place — or even her own name. As Alina’s consciousness swings between imagined conversations, fragments of her own short stories, and the bustling city around her, she finds an anchor in charismatic teenager Simon (Simon Brickner). Drawn to the lost woman, Simon soon introduces Alina to his free-spirited group of friends, and together they make their way through a disorienting cityscape full of life, beauty, and music.

Adam Leon‘s Italian Studies starts off promising enough, almost coming across as a more grounded, humanistic approach to 2013’s Under the Skin but it’s definitely a drastically different film than that one. It’s kind of ironic how this film revolves around memory loss because this is easily the most forgettable movie of the year so far. There are virtually no memorable scenes to be found in Italian Studies because the film ultimately comes off as a jarring compilation of scenes strung together in the desperate hopes of telling a compelling story. Well, I hate to break it to the filmmakers, but they failed tremendously.

It always boggles my mind whenever I see a humongous star attached to such a disappointing project, and so you can imagine just how frustrated I was to see Vanessa Kirby serve as the lead actress for this project. Kirby is not the problem here whatsoever – as a matter of fact, she’s terrific in the film in a more laid-back performance than what we are used to from her. Even Simon Brickner delivers a charming and energetic performance. His character is one of mystery, similar to Kirby’s character Alina. The problem here is the script that gives our leads next to nothing in terms of things to do or substance.

None of the characters here get the proper character development that they deserve. Leon’s script constantly meanders throughout New York City, following a group of people that we constantly feel disconnected from, mainly because we literally know nothing about them. It’s kind of hard to be invested in a group of characters that don’t feel fully realized. Italian Studies focuses first and foremost on Kirby’s character and her peers, but even still it fails because we barely learn anything about her.

I have a feeling that Leon chose this stylistically. I will always applaud creative integrity, but that doesn’t mean I always have to enjoy the end result. Italian Studies always leaves you feeling in a continuous state of confusion and bewilderment. Leon most likely wrote it this way on purpose to make us feel just as lost as Alina – which, on paper, sounds like it could be a good idea – but the end result is a muddled mess that will leave you feeling cold as soon as the credits roll.